


stars and adventures and the great hunting ground

by pieandsouffle



Category: Mortal Engines Series - Philip Reeve
Genre: Gen, mortal engines - Freeform, why is there so little mortal engines fanfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 07:18:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4697138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pieandsouffle/pseuds/pieandsouffle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tom gazes at the stars, dreams of the past, and wonders about the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	stars and adventures and the great hunting ground

**Author's Note:**

> WHY IS MORTAL ENGINES NOT POPULAR.
> 
> WHY.

Thomas Natsworthy likes watching the stars.

Granted, he’s not actually _supposed_ to be wasting his time staring out into the sky at one of the windows (he can practically hear Dr. Arkengarth yelling at him for being out of bed and for _Quirke’s_ sake, what is he doing by the windows next to the 7 E.E. _ceramics,_ ceramics are fragile and _precious_ and don’t grow on the trees in the botanic gardens, 3rd Class Apprentice Natsworthy…), but the view is so beautiful and distant.

It’s lonely, as well. But Tom’s used to loneliness. He doesn’t have friends, he doesn’t have parents, but he has his books and the museum and the stars, at the very least.

And the historians aren’t _horrible_ to him, of course not. They’re not parents, they’re not supposed to be parents, and he feels little pangs of guilt inside him all the time for sometimes thinking that maybe, just _maybe,_ one of them looks at him like he was their-

No. What a preposterous thought. He’s a 3rd Class Apprentice Historian, not a lost puppy looking for a mother. He’s fifteen years old. He’s independent and he doesn’t _need_ anyone.

(All the same, he’d do an awful lot to have his real, actual parents alive and breathing, back down on Tier 4.)

Tom gives himself a shake, and goes back to watching the stars and dreaming of adventure.

Those little pinpricks tell such great adventures! It had been thousands of years since the legend of Niall Strongarm had first swept over the world, and that moon over there- that white disc dangling from the heavens like it would fall at any moment- a man had once _been_ there. A real person!

Of course, Mr. Pomeroy dismissed it as a ridiculous and impossible tale, but Tom could dream, couldn’t he?

All those adventures, just waiting for him out in the sky… he’d never get as far as the stars, that was certain. But there _were_ the Bird Roads, and that was as close as he’d ever be.

A creak sends Tom spinning out of a daydream of stars and adventures and fights across the stage of the sky, and back into the very real world where if he is caught, it’ll be Gut-duty for however many days, which all depends on how grumpy the one who catches him is.

And tomorrow they’ll be heading back out into the Hunting Ground! Back into the city-eat-city world, and a quiver of excitement shivers up Tom’s spine. Back into the great big world. Away from the mountains London had been skulking.

He pads softly over the cold floor, finding his way easily back to his bed and, as he snuggles down and pulls the cover over him just a little tighter, as though it’ll make him fall asleep faster, he wonders what the next days will bring.


End file.
